For the whole school year we have been getting documents ready and signed by our parents, mentor, and Senior Project coordinator. Now that we are approaching the end of the year we have begun to put our binders together and show all the work we have done since the beginning of the school year. We all started to put our pages into our binders so that they are in the proper order of our index page. Things like permission slips, rough draft, pictures, letters, and other documents are all placed into the binder to show the hours of work we have put into our Senior Project. I am very proud of this binder because first of all it looks very nice so I am proud of the work I have put into it. It is a nice feeling to be able to flip through all of the pages and know that everything I have done all year is in there. Second it means we are nearing the completion of the Senior Experience which also makes me excited because I am ready to graduate and to move onto the next chapter in my life.
0 Comments
Today was our first presentation practice in school. All three of us practiced this morning and in my mind it went great! I was the only one who didn't make the ten minute time limit, but I am not discouraged since I was only a few seconds short. With a few more practices before the actual presentation I will be ready to go. I added a few more slides and information to my PowerPoint which should add the necessary time that I was missing. Also during my next few practice runs I will make sure to talk a little slower and to add more details so that my presentation lasts longer. I practice tomorrow morning in front of my classmates for the second time which is a requirement. Hopefully the nerves that that I had during and before my first practice are gone so that the second one goes smoothly. I am excited for the 5th and the 7th for when I get to present in front of the town and in front of the judges for my final grade!
Today was our half day work day where we had to be in school from 8-Noon. This was the day where we started putting together our binders along with talking about Senior Presentation. We got lots of documents ready, signed, and put into our binders so it feels good to have a start on it. We still have to write several thank you letters to every one who helped us during out project. We also have to make our power point presentation that we will be using to help show everything that we accomplished during our Senior Experience. The end of it is all coming together so fast as there is less than a month of school left and it still feels like we have a long way to go. The next big thing will be to finish the last few Senior Experience assignments and then get my power point completed. It introduces us along with telling about the whole process from the beginning of the Senior Paper up until the last of our project. I am both very nervous and excited as I am proud to show everyone what I have accomplished, but nervous to present it to them. I have enjoyed every minute of this whole process but I am truthful to say I can't wait for it all to be over!
With my gate almost complete I just had to add the final part which was the chain hook on top. This hook wasn't necessary or part of the design, it was an idea I had when we were nearing the end of the project. By building the gate so large and by using metal pipes, it made my project very heavy and hard to move. This made me start to think about how I was going to transport it from place to place without causing a problem or having to do back breaking lifting. Eventually the idea popped into my head about welding a chain hook to the top so that with just a chain and a loader tractor it could be lifted easily. Within five minutes Duane and I had a little sketch drawn up about what the mount for the hook needed to look like. We cut out a trapezoid piece of metal and drilled a hole in it for the hook to link into. Then I get on a ladder and welded the metal piece on. When we had given it enough time to cool I crawled back up and connected my bright blue metal hook.
We finally had the main gate finished and it was just time to add the finishing details which included stoppers on the top. These stoppers were rubber mats that Duane had laying around which were old baler belts. These mats were very thick and heavy duty so they were the perfect thing that we needed. We cut them to a 10 inch length because that's what we talked about and decided what would work. After we cut them, I crawled up the ladder and screwed them into the top metal bar so that they dangled down and would hit the gate when it swings back up. I tacked them on by using three self tappers in each side of the mat. Self tappers (self tapping screws) are screws that have a special end so they can go directly into metal without having to drill through first and make a pilot whole. We added these stoppers so that after the gate strikes them a few times it eventually stops swinging. If I didn't add these mats the gate would swing forever after you drive over it because there would be nothing to stop it from swinging. After I had the mats screwed on I pushed the gate down and let it swing a few times and it swings roughly 4-5 extra times which is perfect.
Now that we had the one spring welded on we measured the distance between the top and bottom hooks and welded the two hooks on the other side the same distance apart. Then we attached the spring in the bottom hook once my welds had cooled and we did the same process where I stretched the spring out with the chain and Duane hooked them together once they got close enough. After we got them both attached, we unwired our gate and held our breathe to see if we had enough tension. Once we took the wires off it swung a little bit, but we were both very excited when it stopped swinging and was standing upright! I grabbed the gate and started swinging it down making sure there wasn't too much pressure, and there wasn't. It swung down very nicely and swung right back up when I let go. This marked the end of the main gate building and moved us onto adding the final details. We were one step closer to the end and I am getting very excited.
Since we had the gate done and attached to the frame the next step was to add a spring to each side. These are what swings the gate back up when you drive over it and keeps the gate upright at all times when it is not being used. These were going to be hard to get right because if you don't have enough tension in the springs, the gate will lay flat and won't stay upright. On the other hand, if there is too much tension you won't be able to push into the gate and swing it down with the four-wheeler. This is why we had to find the perfect balance to where there was enough tension to hold the gate up and loose enough to easily be able to push into it and have the gate fold down. We started on the one side where I welded on the hook where the bottom of the spring would attach. Once my welds had cooled we attached the bottom of the spring and began to stretch it to the top with a chain. We kind of played with where we were going to attach the top hook and we both eventually agreed on a spot where it looked good and I welded on the second hook up top. Then it took a lot of team work where I pulled on the chain to stretch out the spring and Duane connected the spring to the the hook up top when I got it close enough together.
Now that I had the frame of the gate attached to the hinges it was time to move on to adding in the cross bars to the gate. These were for support and also for when you drive over the gate the four-wheeler would be putting weight onto the gate so it wouldn't swing back up when you were driving over top. We needed five bars to be evenly spaced throughout the gate so there was support the whole way down. We already had the bars cut to length and had it drawn up that they were going to be 8 inches apart from one another. Before we put them on we crimped the ends of each pipe so they were more flat instead of round, this way they would be much easier to weld without such big gaps to fill. We measured the distances and made marks so we knew exactly where each bar had to go. Once this was done I tacked each bar on just enough to hold, and once they were all attached I went back and welded them solid so they wouldn't be going anywhere. We also had gussets cut out which are triangle shaped pieces of iron which you add to the frame to support it. Once I was done with the gate I welded on the four, 8x8 gussets to each each side of the frame.
Once I got the first hinge welded onto the bottom we welded up the frame of the gate. The gate sits inside the main frame with about a 5 inch gap on each side, just enough so it swings through without us having to worry about it ever hitting. We welded the top of the gate and the sides so we knew what it was going to look like, this way we could connect the gate to the hinges. This was easier than making the whole heavy gate all at once and trying to lift it and maneuver it around. Once we got the gate welded into the hinges at the bottom, then we will go back and put the supporting bars in the gate. Since I already welded on the first hinge we had to slide the gate in from the side and make sure the other hinge was attached to the gate because once I start welding there is no going back. We got both hinges welded up solid and then it was the moment of truth. I lifted the gate and swung it back and forth and it didn't stick or get caught! From here on it is going to be smooth sailing because that was the tricky part making sure the gate would swing.
As a said last post the main part of my gate has to swing down, so where the gate meets the frame it is connected through a hinge like mechanism. We used just a regular piece of pipe for each hinge that was about eight inches long and welded them to the bottom part of the frame so that we could work our way up. Next we got pipe that was just one size smaller so that it slid in and out of our hinges on the frame with little resistance. We had to make sure it worked smoothly because if it caught while rotating that would be a problem in the future. Once we got the right sizes we started on the bottom of the gate working ourselves up. We started making the piece of the gate that was going to connect to the frame allowing it to swing up and down. This was tricky because all our measurements here had to be exact so that everything fit together just perfectly. This hinge part of the gate is definitely the most tricky and caused the most problems, but it was good that we had it all drawn out so that we knew exactly what went where and what sizes we would need.
|
AuthorThis is my journey throughout my Senior Project 2020-2021 Archives
April 2021
Categories |